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May 31, 2009

Right-wing terrorism: did bill o'reilly inspire a killer?

The 67-year-old late term abortion doctor was shot in the church's vestibule and in the head because the shooter knew that's where he'd be and because he knew Tiller always wore body armor... even to church where he served as an usher, and his wife sang in the choir.

The ambush brought instantly to mind the last time Tiller was ambushed. It was in November 2006, by Bill O'Reilly's producer, Porter Barry.

PORTER BARRY: Why are you one of the only doctors who does these kind of abortions?

TILLER: Nice day isn't it?

BARRY: They call you Tiller, the baby Killer. Is that appropriate?

(photo: Dr. George Tiller)

TILLER: I'm think I'm going to get in my car and go to work.

BARRY: Dr. Tiller, don't you think...

TILLER: Hi, is this 911? This is Dr. George Tiller. I am at Edgemoore and Harry at QuickTrip. I'm being accosted by the people from O'Reilly. Yes, and they are preventing me from getting in my car and leaving.

BARRY: You can get in your car and go, Dr. Tiller.

O'Reilly always called Tiller the "so-called baby killer" and referred to Tiller's clinic as a "death-mill, which is exactly what it is." Tiller's name first appeared on "The Factor" in 2005. He has featured or mentioned Tiller in eliminationist terms dozens of times since.

Bill O'Reilly is an accomplice to this murder by many definitions of the word. .

If the suspect in Tiller's murder (he's been arrested) got inspiration, justification and succor from Billo's long on-going and flaming condemnations of Tiller, it wouldn't be the first time the Big Fat Head's words were in the mind of a murderous, ultra-conservative church shooter. O'Reilly's books were on the shelf (along with those of Hannity and Michael Savage) of a rageful nutter who ran amok shooting and killing in a Knoxville Unitarian church last year. The killer wrote in a document obtained by a teevee station that he did it because of the church's liberal teachings and his belief
that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the
country. He said Democrats had tied his country's
hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in
America with the aid of media outlets.

Tiller, who was never proven to be practicing medicine in any way but legally and ethically, was long singled out by right-wing extremists.

Protesters blockaded Tiller's clinic during Operation Rescue's "Summer of Mercy" protests during the summer of 1991, and Tiller was shot by Rachelle Shannon at his clinic in 1993. Tiller was wounded in both arms, and Shannon remains in prison for the shooting.

The clinic was bombed in June 1986, and was severely vandalized earlier this month. According to the Associated Press, his lawyer said wires to security cameras and outdoor lights were cut and that the vandals also cut through the roof and plugged the buildings' downspouts. Rain poured through the roof and caused thousands of dollars of damage in the clinic. Tiller reportedly asked the FBI to investigate the incident.

No arrests were made in the 1986 bombing.

Billo and other right-wing, women's rights opponents based opposition to President Obama's appointment of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health & Human Services on that Tiller had made a contribution to her last campaign.

"No question, he says, "Dr. Tiller has blood on his hands. But now so does Governor Sebelius. She is not fit to serve. Nor is any Kansas politician who supports Tiller's business of destruction. I wouldn't want to be these people if there is a Judgment Day. I just -- you know ... Kansas is a great state, but this is a disgrace upon everyone who lives in Kansas. Is it not?"

Sounds like somebody took Billo's Judgement Day into their own hands... But who can be against you if Bill O'Reilly and God are for you?

Billo made charges that were never proven to be anything but tabloid-teevee speculation:

Wikipedia: On Friday, November 3, 2006, Bill O'Reilly featured an exclusive segment on his show, The O'Reilly Factor, saying that he has an "inside source" with official clinic documentation indicating that George Tiller performs late-term abortions to alleviate "temporary depression" in the pregnant woman. According to reporting data provided to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts for the year 1998, all of the post-viable partial-birth (dilation and extraction) abortion procedures performed in Kansas during that year were performed because "the attending physician believe[d] that continuing the pregnancy [would] constitute a substantial and irreversible impairment of the patient's mental function." Tiller responded to O'Reilly's statements by demanding an investigation into the "inside source" through which the information was leaked, suggesting that Phil Kline, then the Kansas Attorney General, was responsible. Kline denied the charge.

O'Reilly has often fallaciously linked Tiller to child molestation and rape by claiming that since a teenage girl who got an abortion from him could,
by definition, have been a victim of statutory rape, that Tiller was
covering up for child rapists by refusing to release records on the
abortions performed.

A Wichita jury ruled in March that Tiller was not guilty on 19 criminal charges that he'd violated a state law requiring an independent second physician's concurring opinion before performing later term abortions. He faced a bombardment of lawsuits by anti-abortion organizations across the country.

When the right feels the most frustrated and desperate because they're out of power, the bombs and shootings begin. The superheated rhetoric of O'Reilly, Hannity, Michael Savage, Glennn Beck et al adds heat and gives cover to that most dangerous breed of wing-nut splinter-fringies: Christianist dittoheads with guns.

But why would Bill O'Reilly care what the body count is if he's kicking Keith Olbermann's ass in the ratings?

Comments

Probably, the suspect, whom the AP has named as Scott Roeder was also uncovered by Democratic Underground with a archived post on Operation Rescue website showing a Scott Roeder asking if people could infiltrate Tiller's church.

I am going to be up to my eyeballs with grading projects and doing report cards so I will weigh in now while I can.

I can't stand Rush or Bill or Sean or Glenn or the Weiner. I think they make a lot of money to say stuff that I don't even know if they truly believe, or figure it gets listeners to tune in.

That said, Rush's deliberate efforts to get Hillary elected failed miserably. I think that someone who could do this, would have done so without any encouragement from any of the bozos I named above.

As Coiler said, Democratic Underground found posts made to the Operation Rescue blog by the suspect, and they don't appear to be overly inflammatory.

This is the act of an insane person. I would love to blame it on the assholery of the rightie talkers. Words do have consequences. But I think this guy would have done this regardless of whether there was a Rush Limabaugh or not.

To put the blame on O'Reilly for this asshats criminal act is about as valid as putting the blame for ELF, the unibomber or the clowns that burned the UDUB research center on Olbermann, Maddow or Rhodes. Yes, they are all idiots, morons and flame throwers, but not responsible for all of the left wing crime in this nation.
As long as the left wing extreme is in control of The House, The Senate and the POTUS, a few of you will die violently. A few of us die when we run the show.
The mentaly unstable and the criminaly insane are not going to lay down and take it in the ass, no matter who is in charge.
You can't blame it on the nationwide gagle of blatherers.
In our country, we can not keep the hate-talkers out. What you, I and a million others see as free speach, others see as hate-talk.
Who gets to decide.
I don't trust Obama to make the right choice. Would most of you trusted Bush to make the right choice?
In truth, I could have killed the Doctor myself if it were legal. By first and formost, I believe in the rule of law. It is against the law, so I would just not do it.

"Rumsfeld replied by trotting out the ongoing National Guard deployments and suggesting that sending active-duty troops would create 'unity of command' issues. Visibly impatient, Bush turned away from Rumsfeld and began to direct his inquiries at Lieutenant General Honore on the video screen. 'From then on, it was a Bush-Honore dialogue,' remembers another participant. 'The president cut Rumsfeld to pieces. I just wish it had happened earlier in the week.'

I like Bush a little better than I did before. Rumsfeld should be prosecuted for lethal arrogance.

This is the act of an insane person. I would love to blame it on the assholery of the rightie talkers. Words do have consequences. But I think this guy would have done this regardless of whether there was a Rush Limabaugh or not.

To put the blame on O'Reilly for this asshats criminal act is about as valid as putting the blame for ELF, the unibomber or the clowns that burned the UDUB research center on Olbermann, Maddow or Rhodes. Yes, they are all idiots, morons and flame throwers, but not responsible for all of the left wing crime in this nation.
As long as the left wing extreme is in control of The House, The Senate and the POTUS, a few of you will die violently. ( You missed that part Putsie) A few of us die when we run the show.
The mentaly unstable and the criminaly insane are not going to lay down and take it in the ass, no matter who is in charge.
You can't blame it on the nationwide gagle of blatherers.
In our country, we can not keep the hate-talkers out. What you, I and a million others see as free speach, others see as hate-talk.
Who gets to decide.
I don't trust Obama to make the right choice. Would most of you trusted Bush to make the right choice?
In truth, I could have killed the Doctor myself if it were legal. By first and formost, I believe in the rule of law. It is against the law, so I would just not do it.

It certainly warranted being re-posted Coiler. Thank you. I am sure that at least some of you can pick out the meaning of the post. I in no way expected anything less out of Joanie. I knew that she would have a moronic gutter level statement. She did not dissapoint.

And the idiots continue . . .
Drew, trying to have a reasonable conversation with these cretins is like talking to swinging doors.

I've given up although you can tell poor spotsie's still swinging back and forth...back and forth...back and forth . . . still trying to get my attention.

Funny, isn't it?

And, Coiler, you're right, of course. If he didn't mean it, he shouldn't have said it. I'm sure, however, he googled all night trying to find an extremist on the left who killed someone on the right due to extreme conservativism (whatever that is). I think perhaps it is time we did it. :) Bankrupting the country and killing thousands of American kids and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in an illegal war seems like reason enough to me.

Keep googling, chucks. There must be at least one out there... :)

I think it bears reposting a third time:

... a few of you will die violently. A few of us die when we run the show.

Notice, chucks, you said "a few of us" so I'm hoping for more than one but I'll take just one.

Also, coiler, can't you see spotsie stalking us - or is it just me? He must have a file on each of us in which he saves all our posts. He's kind of scary, don't you think? A typical right-wing crazy kind of guy? Obsessed with us? Who else posts 5000 words of nonsense daily?

Oh, and Coiler, thanks for catching his little lie by omission. We really don't know if anything he posts is truthful. But, who really cares?

Joanie-
Try not to let it distract you from the grading of papers, etc., as you close out the year. I'm not sure what's more disturbing: the fact the right's loudest talkers will continue their promotion of violence unabated, or not knowing where the next shot from one of their followers is coming from.

Two days after the election of Obama, a local gun store owner was interviewed on the radio, commenting on how their sales had been going through the roof since Obama's nomination to the party, and he expected them to increase even more with his election. His comments turned to politcal propaganda as he explained how the President was planning to confiscate all guns- part of an evil conspiracy along with Pelosi and Reid. Made some of us wonder if we needed to buy some weapons ourselves, to protect ourselves from the right-wing nutbags who actually believe that crap.

Drew, I think truthfully there is a good chance that he will be shot. I don't say that lightly. I was thinking about it today while listening to Nunberg talk about the danger of the language on the right and I thought of the movie "Taxi Driver" with DeNiro.

Silly to think of movies but they do reflect life sometimes. It will only take one crazy guy and the propaganda and hate messages the right haters are repeating over and over and over will one day find a home in a deranged mind.

Sparky is right. It will take an unstable or insane person. But they are out there. And the profiteering hatemongers on the right are doing their best to find them. That is the crime here.

as much as I deplore Bill O'Reilly (once saw a guy wearing an O'Reilly Factor jacket, just couldn't believe it...), there's no way he can be blamed for this.

Beat him up over his obssessive, dishonest reporting about Tiller (like that is the only issue upon-which he's dishonest), and other reasons, but don't call him an accomplice, please...

There are people who say that the Bible says being a White Supremacist is cool. I'm no fan of the bible by any means, but obviously to any reasoned-thinking person, they're nuts to do so.

In short, this deranged nutbag who killed Tiller didn't need O'Reilly to stoke his embers - the lunatic crowd that does this kind of thing was already inspired long before O'Reilly came 'round.

Personally, I think it's of more value to keep an eye on Hannity, Limbaugh and the other extremist cons who stoke the flames of fear of the Obama gov't, literally inspiring people to consider revolution and succession - those are the real threats to the country as an whole (not necessarily the folks on TV, but they ones they enrage).

So, let's see now do we blame the popular TV entertainment show 'Hogan's Hero's' for the Viet Name War. After all it was one of the most popular entertainment shows of that era.
I'm with Sparky on this one, even tho I dislike most (if not all) of these 'talkers', responsibility lies with the perpetrater, period.

Duffman. Vietnam is over. We lost. Be more useful if you would climb into this century, and discuss the real problems concerning the latest American overreach, the neoconservative quagmire of Iraq. We will be paying for it in various ways for at least as long as we have the crime of Vietnam.

Can't wait to hear O'Reilly lecture us tonight about how wrong it is to take the law into your own hands and the crime of violent murder as a political tactic. He will have tried to wash his hands of bloodstains before the broadcast starts.

I believe the same as Sparky, you can’t blame others for the people that have gone round the bend.
But I find it strange that these mentally deranged folks are attracted to the hate talk. And they are more than willing to do the bidding of the extreme right. The right recognizes and sometimes glorifies these folks until the line is crossed. Then the folks that agitated these actions disown the person as a mental case and cry foul when the connection is made. Never once admitting their agitation of these folks.

M.Steele, that's exactly how this one is going down. O'Rielly will do a lightweight admonishment of what ammounts to a terrorist act, and will totally avoid discussing his 28 attacks on Dr. Tiller on previous episodes of his show. A lot like how Hannity totally avoids his promise to be waterboarded.

Correct, he is an entertainer. Not the type to outwardly call for violent behavior. He’s the type that will obliquely refer to it. And to the mentally deranged, this may be a call to arms.(Or maybe not, I’m not a Phyc). I still find it strange these people find comfort in the corner of the right.

You can find it strange and find coincidental connections with lots of stuff but you can't let a TV or talk show be directly responsible for the actions of a mad person. These (talk shows, et al) are a part of our society and as such are part of people's environment. How that environment affects the actions of a deranged human being has nothing to do with political slant. Now STFU and try to do something to make yourself useful instead of whiiiiiining on and on about this.
You're simply showing what a dolt you are.

Good thing the rest of America still believes in Free Speech- the same freedom that allows O'Reilly to spew forth his hatred, along with Michael Weiner, and Rush Limbaugh, that same freedom allows us to criticize right-wing nut bags like Bill-O

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Now it's Top 40 hits from the '60's & '70's aimed at that diminishing crowd who still remembers them and can still hear.

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